小笠原美那子に
ついて
About Minako Ogasawara
北海道・江別市で95歳まで絵手紙を教え、家族の記憶と平和への願いを伝える、小笠原美那子の歩みです。
Meet Minako Ogasawara, an etegami teacher in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, whose picture letters and kamishibai carry family memory, gratitude and a wish for peace.
ミナコの声 · HEAR FROM MINAKO
大阪
Osaka
大阪で実業家だった父は日本画家竹内栖鳳の内弟子として日本画を嗜む。美那子は子供の頃から書家でもあった父の元で絵と書の手解きを受ける。
Minako’s father, a businessman in Osaka, studied traditional Japanese painting as a live-in apprentice to the artist Takeuchi Seihō. He was also a calligrapher, and from childhood, Minako learned the foundations of painting and calligraphy under his guidance.
大阪から北海道へ
From Osaka to Hokkaido
戦争で多くを失った家族は終戦直後の1945年10月、拓北農兵隊の入植者として北海道オホーツク地方の斜里へ移動する。未開の土地を与えられたが耕作を断念、網走へ移る。その後父はまた芸術活動を再開。美那子はその後結婚し一男一女を儲ける。
In October 1945, Minako Ogasawara’s family of six moved from Osaka to Shari in eastern Hokkaido as post-war agricultural settlers. Her parents worked to cultivate undeveloped land in difficult conditions, and two years later the family moved to Abashiri. Her father started to restart his art works. Minako later married and raised a son and daughter.
絵手紙との出会い
Minako and Etegami
書道の講師をしていたきっかけで絵手紙に出会い、時には形式を重視する書道から逸脱し、身近なものをよく見て、自分の線と言葉で相手に届ける絵手紙に魅了され、絵手紙を始める。2025年、95歳を迎えるまで絵手紙サークル講師を続け、小学校から同好会まで延べ千人もの愛好家に絵手紙の魅力を伝えてきました。
Through her work as a calligraphy teacher, Minako discovered etegami. She was drawn to the freedom it offered from the formal conventions that can sometimes constrain calligraphy: looking closely at everyday things and sharing them with another person through her own lines and words. She continued teaching etegami groups until she turned 95 in 2025. Over the years, she introduced around a thousand people, from primary school children to members of community groups, to the joy of etegami.
絵手紙の作品を見る
See Minako’s etegami
季節の題材、素直な線、短い言葉。ギャラリーで絵手紙の世界をご覧ください。
Explore seasonal subjects, honest lines and a few words in the gallery.
